Richard Leckhttps://richardleck9.wordpress.com
Games Development
Fri, 22 Feb 2019 16:51:56 +0000 en
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1 http://wordpress.com/https://s0.wp.com/i/buttonw-com.pngRichard Leckhttps://richardleck9.wordpress.com
A little info about me!https://richardleck9.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/a-little-info-about-me/
https://richardleck9.wordpress.com/2015/09/21/a-little-info-about-me/#respondMon, 21 Sep 2015 13:04:06 +0000http://richardleck9.wordpress.com/?p=361Hi my name is Richy, I do have an about me page that covers most of what you need to know! Nevertheless, here is a few things that may not be on there. I am 19 Years Old. Some of my favourite music is quite mixed as I don’t usually have a preference of genre, more of a preference of what mood I’m in. I like a lot of popular music and I usually sway towards positively-styled music that makes you feel good and has a lot of energy. Some of my favourite artists are, Calvin Harris, Ellie Ghoulding, Sigma, Disclosure and Daft Punk. Don’t get the wrong idea though, I enjoy many different types of music like Rock, Alternative, Metal, Hip-hop and Pop.

I love to play many types of games, regardless of whether its on PC, Xbox, Nintendo or Playstation, but I own a PC which I play primarily, and the Xbox platforms. I stopped swaying towards the Playstation after the PS2, purely because after the Original Xbox, I felt like that was the platform for me with titles like Dead Or Alive, and Project Gotham Racing. Although I did miss having quite a few of the Final Fantasy titles which were Playstation exclusive!

I joined the Games Development Course because I have a huge pssion for games and for as long as I can remember, when playing games I always seem to have an idea which I would’ve liked in the game or would like to change. This course will provide me with the knowledge to one day have a hand in creating my own game and inputting my own ideas into a game, whatever the genre may be.

I am a lot more excited for the release of the new Forza title than I thought I’d be. Ive recently been seeing more and more gameplay videos online and each one of them grabbed my attention more than the one before. I was a big fan of the Test Drive games, unlike quite a few people, because of it attention to detail with the vehicles, but with complete free-roam and huge open landscapes to explore with all different types of cars. I am also a fan of the utter amazing detail in the vehicles of Forza Motorsport 5, so you can imagine how I feel about Forza Horizon 2. Admittedly, I haven’t played the first title of Forza Horizon, but for good reason. I was a huge fan of Forza Motorsport from the second title, and I didn’t want to ruin my experience of the game by playing a spin-off that made it into a gimmick. Luckily the first game got a lot of good attention, but I always felt Forza could do better with the idea of a free-roam. This game seems to be ticking all of the right boxes for myself, hence I am very happy to see it coming to the next-gen consoles.

If anyone has followed along with the Resident Evil or ‘Biohazard’ franchise, then you will know that early releases of the game were a new type of scary, and that it used its scariness to entertain the audiences. Unfortunately, it has lately become a dying horror, as the late releases haven’t been living up to the Resident Evil reputation. The article linked below is on WIRED.com and has more info.

This is a review about a few aspects of my experience while playing the new highly anticipated game, Destiny, on Xbox One. First I would like to talk about the character element of the game. There is not one single protagonist as such, but you are the main character of your game experience. To further explain, you are helping to fight a larger cause than just one protagonist could accomplish, or so the storyline foretells. Whereas you do defeat the main enemy cause alone, or with a couple of your friends. The game gives a great player customisation, it is not so complex that you end up getting bored or confused, but with a nice variety so that you input your own personal ‘flare’ on the gameplay. You play as a ‘Guardian’, and you are one of many, but every Guardian has his or her own ‘Ghost’. Not to give away to many spoilers, but a Ghost is appointed by ‘The Traveller’- a huge spherical, mechanical ball in the sky. There are a few AI controlled characters, but they do not have much affect on the story, or any background whatsoever, although you do end up interacting with them quite a bit for story progression. I do not feel like they made a mistake with the way the player was not controlling one sole protagonist, as for the online gameplay experience they have opted to go with suited it very well.

The environments on this game are very well thought out, although I have to say, because they were planets in our own solar system, there was not too much ‘innovation’ here. Even though the developers didn’t completely create the environments from their imagination, the attention to detail was admirable. For example, on Mars the footprints were soft and rounded, because of the sandy environment, but on Earths Moon the footprints were quite detailed due to the lack of winds and the type of ground material. Obviously there were structures that were placed on these planets, but although they seemed like they fitted in very well with the storyline, they felt a little unoriginal. I can’t completely fault them for this as they still made it very enjoyable to see because of the amount of sheer detail in the models. There is a ‘base’ where you always come back to on Earth called ‘The Last City’, the developers crafted this very well and put a lot of work into making the detail next-gen, especially with the foliage. Overall, the environments just feel ‘right’, it is hard to completely innovate a futuristic landscape, as there has already been so many, but Destiny did a great job at making sure it did not feel repetitive. I sometimes just finding myself looking around at the model and texture detail, especially on the wearable objects (armour, weapons, etc).

At first I had a little bit of difficulty with the arrangement of the controls, this is because they are a bit of a mix between the original ‘Halo’ franchise controls and normal first-person shooter controls. Quite quickly I adjusted and found that the button placement was very functional for myself. Destiny does allow for customisation of the controls, quite a bit at that, but one thing they didn’t do which I though would put everyones mind at ease completely, is allow for individual custom button binding. I can see why they might not have allowed this, due to the fact that the online multiplayer may be compromised, but the PC gaming community have been allowing this for quite some time now, so I think it would only be wise to allow this on consoles. Overall I do like the default setup for Destiny on Xbox One, but I can imagine that it won’t be optimal for everyone and it could discourage people from playing the game.

For a quick summary I would just like to say that I am pleased with the game and the way it has turned out, but I think the fact that it was hyped up so much, like a lot of games nowadays, the experience gets a little dumbed down. I understand completely that it is for advertisement purposes, but there is no feeling like getting an unpopular game and it turning out to be outstanding.

The link below is Matt Kamen’s in full in-depth review of Destiny on Wired.

I think it’s safe to say I’m excited about the Apple Watch, the unveiling was definitely something to remember. The introduction video for the new smart watch was portrayed very well by Jony Ive. I just can’t wait for the release!

Wired has a lot more information on the device and here is the link to their page on it.

]]>https://richardleck9.wordpress.com/2014/09/10/it-was-named-the-apple-watch/feed/0richardleck9apple-watch-paymentsApple has released the top reasons why apps are declined for the App Store.https://richardleck9.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/apple-has-release-the-top-reasons-why-apps-are-declined-for-the-app-store/
https://richardleck9.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/apple-has-release-the-top-reasons-why-apps-are-declined-for-the-app-store/#respondTue, 02 Sep 2014 15:16:52 +0000http://richardleck9.wordpress.com/?p=94Apple has kept shush about why apps are declined when trying to publish them to the App Store, so the fact they have release this info means developers can see why their apps are getting declined. I like how strict Apple are about the apps in the Store, the fact that they are means that a lower age group can enjoy the experience on their Apple devices without having to have too many restrictions by their parents/guardians. Another thing is that it means that people who are easily offended by inappropriate images, language, or actions, can browse the app store without fear that they may download something they are going to regret. The link below sheds more in-depth light on the subject.

]]>https://richardleck9.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/apple-has-release-the-top-reasons-why-apps-are-declined-for-the-app-store/feed/0richardleck9asoElgato announces Eve home automation integrated with Apple’s HomeKit, Avea smart LED lights and Smart Power batterieshttps://richardleck9.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/elgato-announces-eve-home-automation-integrated-with-apples-homekit-avea-smart-led-lights-and-smart-power-batteries/
https://richardleck9.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/elgato-announces-eve-home-automation-integrated-with-apples-homekit-avea-smart-led-lights-and-smart-power-batteries/#respondTue, 02 Sep 2014 01:58:28 +0000http://richardleck9.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/elgato-announces-eve-home-automation-integrated-with-apples-homekit-avea-smart-led-lights-and-smart-power-batteries/I’ve always loved the thought of having a fully technologically connected home, I guess the future is sooner than we thought! And more importantly accessible to the general public!
]]>https://richardleck9.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/elgato-announces-eve-home-automation-integrated-with-apples-homekit-avea-smart-led-lights-and-smart-power-batteries/feed/0richardleck9Feels like driving in the future.https://richardleck9.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/feels-like-driving-in-the-future/
https://richardleck9.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/feels-like-driving-in-the-future/#respondTue, 02 Sep 2014 01:47:52 +0000http://richardleck9.wordpress.com/?p=88I just came across this video/advertisement, I found it quite amusing but I like the idea that this device is based around, pretty cool!

This is just a short review on Apple’s new version of Mac OS X, 10.10. As some of you may or may not know, only one million people were able to have access to the Yosemite Beta. Luckily for myself, I was one of those one million. I have been testing various parts of the new-to-be-released version 10.10, and have only come across a few minor problems that I can fault the software for. To begin with, I will talk a little bit about the cons I have come across while using/testing the software, as anybody can expect, Yosemite is overall a little ‘glitchy’, and sometimes applications just crash. Although this can be frustrating, it is not very often at all, and I’m almost certain those kinks will be worked out before the release, hence the early release beta.

Another one of the problems I have came across is the new Family Account Sharing. I was quite excited to see this feature in the new release of OS X and iOS 8, as it will be a huge convenience for myself and my other half, for iTunes purchases and other factors. Unfortunately, in the iCloud preferences, where you set this feature up, it would not allow me to invite anyone to my ‘Family Sharing’. I understand why it may not work due to the fact that this feature is only in beta, and making it usable may be unstable on earlier platforms, but it is just a shame that a big feature like this can’t be enjoyed by the public yet.

One last minor problem I had with a couple of different applications and scenarios, is that I would get a strange intermittent flashing in some cases, usually after clicking/opening a certain feature. For example, in Notification Center, when the ‘social’ widget is in your sidebar, and you click on any of the buttons (Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin, or Messages), you would get this strange flashing below the text box every time, without fail. Like I said this is very minor and doesn’t stop you from using any feature, it is just persistent and a little annoying.

Now lets just give the new software a little credit. Yosemite follows the same type of aesthetics as Mountain Lion, clean, simple and yet very pleasing to the eye. For example, they have now incorporated a lot of translucency, like in iOS 7 and 8, which makes the experience of using it a lot more intuitive and enjoyable. I seemed to realise how much the translucency effected the experience when I was browsing the web in Safari. It sounds quite petty, but it still makes me smile to this day watching videos or images scroll through the top translucent bar.

I have made full use of the new feature ‘Dark menu bar and dock’, It’s such a simple new feature, but believe it or not, just having the option to have a light or dark ‘feel’ to the desktop makes a lot of difference. Overall, Yosemite seems to have outdone itself, the amount of new features this software brings to the table is simple, yet astounding. The way they have made the continuity between iOS and Mac OS X seamless. The first time I took a phone call on Yosemite, it was completely unexpected, yet I just accepted it without even thinking. I believe that is what makes Yosemite and it’s continuity so admirable to me, the fact that things just ‘work’ the way you think they should, and this is what Apple try to do with all of their user experiences. I know that is quite subjective, but I think that is an important quality to have in a piece of software.

I did say that this was going to be a short review and I will link a more in-depth review below, I just wanted to share my feelings on the Yosemite Beta.

]]>https://richardleck9.wordpress.com/2014/09/02/yosemite-beta-review/feed/0richardleck9OS-X-Yosemiteoverview_apps_herooverview_design_herooverview_mac_ios_herofkwqh4rauzse0qvzgzp2Apple September 9th Event hopes to be a good one!https://richardleck9.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/apple-september-9th-event-hopes-to-be-a-good-one/
https://richardleck9.wordpress.com/2014/09/01/apple-september-9th-event-hopes-to-be-a-good-one/#respondMon, 01 Sep 2014 17:30:44 +0000http://richardleck9.wordpress.com/?p=53Apple has announced its much-rumoured 9 September event, at which it is expected the company will reveal a range of new products. Honestly for me, I can’t wait to feast my eyes on the new smart watch from Apple, as I am admittedly a proud supporter of the way the company goes about their products.

I believe if/when they release their smart watch, it will probably be my favourite smart watch to date, hence I haven’t took much interest in the current smart watches on the market. If I could give a personal opinion on which I would choose from other manufacturers, then I would have to say my subjective favourite at the moment is the ‘Moto 360‘, purely because of it’s design and intuitiveness. Moreover, in the upcoming event, Apple are almost certainly going to unveil the new iPhone 6 with 4.7 Inch display, but a strong rumour is lingering that the new ‘iWatch’ or ‘iTime’ may be unveiled along-side! Another fact about the event, is that it is going to be int he same, San Fransisco Venue, Apple used to launch the first ever Mac in 1984. Click the link below for more information on the Apple Event.